Editing Niobe

{{Short description|Greek mythological daughter of Tantalus}}
{{About|the daughter of Tantalus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
<!--This article has used the BC/AD convention since 03:26, 27 February 2008. -->
[[File:Niobe JacquesLouisDavid 1772 Dallas Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|325px|A 1772 painting by [[Jacques-Louis David]] depicting Niobe attempting to shield her children from [[Artemis]] and [[Apollo]] ]]

'''Niobe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|aɪ|.|ə|.|b|iː}}; {{langx|grc|Νιόβη}} {{IPA|el|ni.óbɛː|}}: Nióbē) was in [[Greek mythology]] a daughter of [[Tantalus]] and of either [[Dione (mythology)|Dione]] or of [[Eurythemista]] or [[Euryanassa]]. She was the wife of [[Amphion]] and the sister of [[Pelops]] and [[Broteas]].

Niobe is mentioned by [[Achilles]] in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', which relates her ''[[hubris]]'', for which she was punished by [[Leto]], who sent [[Apollo]] and [[Artemis]] to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food.<ref>''Iliad'' 24.603–610 : "[...] the fair-haired Niobe bethought her of meat, albeit twelve children perished in her halls, six daughters and six lusty sons. The sons Apollo slew with shafts from his silver bow, being wroth against Niobe, and the daughters the archer Artemis, for that Niobe had matched her with fair-cheeked Leto, saying that the goddess had borne but twain, while herself was mother to many; wherefore they, for all they were but twain, destroyed them all. For nine days' space they lay in their blood, nor was there any to bury them, for the son of Cronos turned the folk to stones; howbeit on the tenth day the gods of heaven buried them; and Niobe bethought her of meat, for she was wearied with the shedding of tears."</ref> Once [[Greek gods | the gods]] had interred the slain, Niobe retreated to her native [[Sipylus]], "where [[Nymphs]] dance around the River Acheloos,<ref>The river Acheloos in Niobe's story should not confused with its much larger namesake, the [[Achelous River| Acheloos River]] in mainland [[Greece]]. The Acheloos mentioned by Homer could correspond to the modern-day ''Çaybaşı Stream'' which flows around the slopes of the Mount Sipylus in immediate proximity of the Weeping Rock associated with her. The plain between the coast and the ancient city of [[Edremit, Balıkesir| Adramyttium]] was also called "Thebe" (the present-day Edremit Plain).</ref> and though turned to stone, she broods over the sorrows sent by the Gods".<ref>''Iliad'' 24.602 ff.</ref> Later writers<ref>[[Apollodorus]], 3.5.6</ref> asserted that Niobe was wedded to [[Amphion]], one of the twin founders of [[Thebes, Greece| Thebes]], where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but no shrine to Niobe.

== Mythology ==
[[File:Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons - Penn Provenance Project.jpg|250px|thumb|Woodcut illustration of Niobe, Amphion and their dead sons, ca. 1474 – Penn Provenance Project]]

=== Family ===
Her father was the ruler of a city located near [[Manisa]] in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis"<ref>{{cite book | title = History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia |page=62 |isbn=978-1-4067-0883-7 |author= George Perrot |publisher=Chapman and Hall |year=1892 |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyartinphry00perriala#page/62/mode/1up }}</ref> or "the city of [[Tantalus]]", or "Sipylus". The city was located at the foot of [[Mount Sipylus]] and its ruins were reported to be still visible at the beginning of the 1st century AD,<ref>{{cite book | title = Pausanias, and other Greek sketches, later retitled Pausanias's Description of Greece |isbn=1-4286-4922-0 |first=James George |last=Frazer |author-link=James George Frazer |publisher=[[Kessinger Publishing Company]] |year=1900 |page=11 |url=https://archive.org/stream/pausaniasandoth00frazgoog#page/n21/mode/2up/search/tantalus}}</ref> although few traces remain today.<ref>There is a "Throne" conjecturally associated with Pelops in the Yarıkkaya locality in Mount Sipylus. There are two tombs called "Tomb of Tantalus" near the summits of the neighboring mountains of [[Yamanlar]] and Mount Sipylus in western Turkey, sources by respective scholars differing on the associations that may be based on the one or the other.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus ([[Magnesia ad Sipylum]]) was built in its place.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pliny the Elder |title=Natural History |url=https://archive.org/stream/L330PlinyNaturalHistoryI12/L330-Pliny%20Natural%20History%20I%3A1-2#page/n355/mode/2up/search/tantalis |volume=2 |page=337 |translator=H. Rackham |date=1938}}</ref>

Niobe's father is referred to as "[[Phrygians|Phrygian]]" and sometimes even as "King of [[Phrygia]]",<ref name="myth">{{cite book|title= Bulfinch's Mythology  |isbn=978-1440426308|year= 2010|author=Thomas Bulfinch|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> although his city was located in the western extremity of [[Anatolia]] where [[Lydia]] was to emerge as a state before the beginning of the first millennium BC, and not in the traditional heartland of Phrygia, situated more inland. There are references to his son and Niobe's brother as "Pelops the Lydian", and this led some scholars to suspect Niobe belonged to a primordial house of [[Lydia]].{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}
 
In the ''[[Fabulae]]'' Dione, identified in the text as a daughter of Atlas, becomes the wife of [[Tantalus]] and mother of [[Pelops]], though Niobe herself is not mentioned.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#82 82–83].</ref>In [[Ovid]]'s account of the story, Niobe names her father as Tantalus and her mother as a sister of the [[Pleiades]] and a daughter of [[Atlas]].<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.146-6.217 6.174].</ref> Although she gives no name it is assumed to be Dione.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Barchiesi |editor-first1=Alessandro |author1=Gianpiero Rosati |chapter=Commentary on Book 6 |title=A Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses |date=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=634 |isbn=9781139047272}}</ref> The [[Hyades (mythology)|Hyades]] are traditionally the sisters of the Pleiades and daughters of Atlas,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gantz |first1=Timothy |title=Early Greek myth: a guide to literary and artistic sources |date=1993 |page=218 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University press |isbn=0-8018-4410-X}}</ref> and in the account of [[Pherecydes of Athens|Pherecydes]], Dione numbers among them.<ref name="Fowlervol1">Pherecydes ''in'' R. Fowler, ''Early Greek Mythography'' Fr.90a (=A, [https://topostext.org/work/866#18.486c 18.486c] D Scholia to the ''Iliad'' 18.486c); Fr.90d (=Hyginus, [[De Astronomia|''De'' ''Astronomia'']] [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.21.1 2.21.1])</ref>  According to a [[scholia]] on [[Euripides]]'s [[Orestes (play)|Orestes]], her mother is either Eurythemista<ref>Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaineuripi00schwgoog/page/97/mode/1up?view=theater 11] [https://euripidesscholia.org/Edition/OrestesScholia_all.html English translation].</ref> or Euryanassa,<ref>Scholia ad Euripides, ''Orestes'' [https://archive.org/details/scholiaineuripi00schwgoog/page/95/mode/1up?view=theater 4 and 11] [https://euripidesscholia.org/Edition/OrestesScholia_all.html English translation].</ref> with the latter being a genealogy also given by [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]].<ref>[[Tzetzes]] ad [[Lycophron]], [https://archive.org/details/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft/page/38/mode/2up 52].</ref>

Niobe's husband was [[Amphion and Zethus|Amphion]], a son of [[Zeus]] and [[Antiope of Thebes|Antiope]]. Amphion's twin brother, [[Amphion and Zethus|Zethus]], was a ruler of Thebes. Amphion became a great singer and musician after his lover [[Hermes]] taught him to play music and gave him a golden lyre. Zethus's wife and Niobe's sister-in-law was [[Aëdon]], who had a single child, [[Itylus]]. Aëdon was jealous of the vast progeny Niobe had produced, so she conceived a plan to kill Niobe's firstborn, a boy named [[Amaleus]]. Aëdon instructed her son to sleep in the back of the room, or in the innermost position of the bed that night, but Itylus forgot about his mother's words. So when Aëdon entered the children's chamber, she unknowingly killed her own child instead of Niobe's. Her pain was so great the gods transformed her into a nightingale.<ref>{{cite book | title = Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature | first = William F. | last = Hansen | publisher = [[Cornell University Press]] | date = 2002 | location = UK, USA | isbn = 0-8014-3670-2 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ezDlXl7gP9oC | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=ezDlXl7gP9oC&pg=PA303 303]}}</ref>

=== Blasphemous boast ===
[[File:Jacques-Louis David, Niobe and Her Daughter, 1775-80, NGA 107057.jpg|thumb| alt=Niobe, in flowing garment, arm raise and face mournful, holding the collapsed body of her daughter across her thigh | [[Jacques-Louis David]], Niobe and Her Daughter, 1775–80, black ink with gray wash over graphite on laid paper, overall: 15.2 × 14&nbsp;cm (6&nbsp;×&nbsp;5 1/2 in.), NGA 107057]][[File:Ağlayan Kaya, Spil Dağı.jpg|thumb|The Weeping Rock in [[Mount Sipylus]], [[Manisa]], [[Turkey]], has been associated with Niobe's legend since Antiquity.<ref>E.g. by [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]], i.390ff [http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisWrath.html Theoi.com on-line quotation]</ref>]]Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female (the [[Niobids]]), to [[Leto]] who only had two children, the twins Apollo and Artemis. The number varies in different sources.<ref>According to ''[[Iliad]]'' XXIV, there were twelve, six male, six female. [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] (''Varia Historia'' xii. 36): "But Hesiod says they were nine boys and ten girls—unless after all the verses are not Hesiod but are falsely ascribed to him as are many others." Nine would make a triple [[Multiple birth|triplet]], triplicity being character of numerous sisterhoods ([[Jane Ellen Harrison|J.E. Harrison]], ''A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903), "The Maiden-Trinities" pp 286ff); ten would equate to a full two hands of male [[Dactyl (mythology)|dactyl]]s, while twelve would resonate with the number of [[Olympian gods]].</ref> Her speech which caused the indignation of the goddess was rendered in the following manner:

{{blockquote|It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona [i.e, Leto] and her offspring, Apollo and Diana [i.e, Artemis] when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of an angry woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. "What folly," said she, "is this! to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I? My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's daughter, with her two children? I have seven times as many. Fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one deny this?<ref name=myth/>}}
Using arrows, [[Artemis]] killed Niobe's daughters and [[Apollo]] killed Niobe's sons. According to some versions, at least two of Niobe's children (usually [[Chloris|Meliboea]], along with her brother [[Amyclas]] in other renderings) was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo for having sworn revenge. Devastated, Niobe fled back to [[Mount Sipylus]]<ref>The return of Niobe from Thebes to her Lydian homeland is recorded in pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' 3.46.</ref> and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a natural rock formation which resembles a female face, and it has been associated with Niobe since ancient times and described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. The rock formation is also known as the "Weeping Rock" ({{langx|tr|Ağlayan Kaya}}), since rainwater seeps through its [[porosity|porous]] [[limestone]].

After Niobe's overweening pride in her children, offending Apollo and Artemis, brought about her children's deaths, Amphion commits [[suicide]] out of grief; according to [[Telesilla]], Artemis and Apollo murder him along with his children. [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], however, writes that in his madness he tried to attack the temple of Apollo, and was killed by the god's arrows.

The only [[Niobid]] spared stayed greenish pale from horror for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was called [[Chloris]] (the pale one).<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]. ''Description of Greece'' 2.21.9</ref>

==Within Greek culture==
In his archaic role as bringer of diseases and death, Apollo with his poison arrows killed Niobe's sons and Artemis with her poison arrows killed Niobe's daughters.<ref>Compare the "Elphenshots" in northern-European folklore. Martin Nilsson (1967). ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion.'' Vol I, p.443</ref> This is related to the myth of the seven youths and seven maidens who were sent every year to the king [[Minos]] of Crete as an offering sacrifice to the [[Minotaur]]. Niobe was transformed into a stone on [[Mount Sipylus]] in her homeland of [[Phrygia]], where she brooded over the sorrows sent by the gods.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' xxiv,602</ref> In Sophocles' ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]],'' the heroine believes that she will have a similar death.<ref>''[https://archive.today/20120711002217/http://magic.education2020.com/Websites/Literature/antigone.html Antigone]'', lines 823-838. ANTIGONE: I’ve heard about a guest of ours, daughter of Tantalus, from Phrygia – she went to an excruciating death in Sipylus, right on the mountain peak. The stone there, just like clinging ivy, wore her down, and now, so people say, the snow and rain never leave her there, as she laments. Below her weeping eyes her neck is wet with tears. God brings me to a final rest which most resembles hers. CHORUS: But Niobe was a goddess, born divine – and we are human beings, a race which dies. But still, it’s a fine thing for a woman, once she’s dead, to have it said she shared, in life and death, the fate of demi-gods.</ref>
The iconic number "seven" often appears in Greek legends, and represents an ancient tradition because it appears as a [[lyre]] with seven strings in the [[Hagia Triada|Hagia Triada sarcophagus]] in [[Crete]] during the [[Mycenean Greece|Mycenean age]].<ref>{{cite book|author=F. Schachermeyer |date=1964 |title= Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta |publisher=[[W. Kohlhammer]]|location= Stuttgart |page=124}}</ref> Apollo's lyre had also seven strings.

==In literature and fine arts==
[[File:Uffizi Gallery - Daughter of Niobe bent by terror.jpg|thumbnail|left|''Daughter of Niobe bent by terror'', Niobe room in [[Uffizi gallery]] ]]

===Literature===
[[File:Lineage Tantalus.svg|thumb|250px|Lineage of Tantalus]]
The story of Niobe, and especially her sorrows, is an ancient one. The context in which she is mentioned by [[Achilles]] to [[Priam]] in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' is as a stock type for mourning. Priam is not unlike Niobe in the sense that he was also grieving for his son [[Hector]], who was killed and not buried for several days.

Niobe is also mentioned in [[Sophocles]]'s ''[[Antigone (Sophocles play)|Antigone]]'' where, as Antigone is marched toward her death, she compares her own loneliness to that of Niobe.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120711002217/http://magic.education2020.com/Websites/Literature/antigone.html Antigone], around line 940. ANTIGONE: I’ve heard about a guest of ours, daughter of Tantalus, from Phrygia – she went to an excruciating death in Sipylus, right on the mountain peak. The stone there, just like clinging ivy, wore her down, and now, so people say, the snow and rain never leave her there, [830] as she laments. Below her weeping eyes her neck is wet with tears. God brings me to a final rest which most resembles hers. [940] CHORUS: But Niobe was a goddess, born divine – and we are human beings, a race which dies. But still, it’s a fine thing for a woman, once she’s dead, to have it said she shared, in life and death, the fate of demi-gods.</ref> [[Sophocles]] is said to have also contributed a play titled ''Niobe'' that is lost.

The ''Niobe'' of [[Aeschylus]], set in Thebes, survives in fragmentary quotes that were supplemented by a papyrus sheet containing twenty-one lines of text.<ref>A. D. Fitton Brown offered a reconstruction of the form of the play, in {{cite journal|author=A. D. Fitton Brown|title=Niobe|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=4|issue=3/4|date=July 1954|pages= 175–180|doi=10.1017/S0009838800008077|s2cid=246875795 }}</ref> From the fragments it appears that for the first part of the tragedy the grieving Niobe sits veiled and silent.

Furthermore, the conflict between Niobe and Leto is mentioned in one of [[Sappho]]'s poetic fragments ("Before they were mothers, Leto and Niobe had been the most devoted of friends.").<ref>{{cite book|title = The poems of Sappho: an interpretative rendition into English |author= John Myers O'Hara | publisher=Forgotten Books|year= 1924}}</ref>

In [[Latin language]] sources, Niobe's account is first told by [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] in his collection of stories in brief and plain ''Fabulae''.

[[Parthenius of Nicaea]] records a rare version of the story of Niobe, in which her father is called Assaon and her husband Philottus. The circumstances in which Niobe loses her children are also different, see {{section link|Niobids#Parthenius variant}}.

Niobe's iconic tears were also mentioned in [[Hamlet]]'s [[soliloquy]] (Act 1, Scene 2), in which he contrasts his mother's grief over the dead King, Hamlet's father – "like Niobe, all tears" – to her unseemly hasty marriage to Claudius.<ref>[[William Shakespeare]], "The [[Tragedy]] of [[Hamlet]], Prince of Denmark"  Act I, scii, l 149, of Queen Gertrude.</ref>

The quotation from Hamlet is also used in [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]' novel ''Murder Must Advertise'', in which an advertising agency's client turns down an advertisement using the quotation as a caption.<ref>[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Murder Must Advertise'', Gollancz, London, 1933</ref>

In [[William Faulkner]]'s novel ''Absalom, Absalom!'' Faulkner compares Ellen, the wife of Sutpen and father of Henry and Judith, to Niobe, "this Niobe without tears, who had conceived to the demon [Sutpen] in a kind of nightmare" (Chapter 1).

Among works of modern literature which have Niobe as a central theme, Kate Daniels' ''Niobe Poems'' can be cited.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Niobe Poems|isbn= 0-8229-3596-1|author= Kate Daniels|publisher= [[University of Pittsburgh Press]]|year= 1988|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/niobepoems00dani}}</ref>

===Arts===
[[File:Wall painting - death of the Niobids - Pompeii (VII 15 2) - Napoli MAN 111479.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Apollo]] and [[Artemis]] shoot the sons of Niobe, who flee (partly on horseback) in an idyllic landscape, fresco in [[Pompeii]], 1st c. BC – 1st c. AD.]]
[[File:Niobe 1905 Thomas Henry Massey (-1946).ogg|thumb|'Niobe' gavotte named after the 1904 farce by Harry Paulton concerning a figure of Greek mythology]]
The subject of Niobe and the destruction of the [[Niobids]] was part of the repertory of Attic vase-painters and inspired sculpture groups and wall frescoes as well as relief carvings on Roman [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]].

The subject of the Attic calyx-krater from [[Orvieto]] conserved in the [[Musée du Louvre]] has provided the name for the [[Niobid Painter]].<ref>identified by Webster, ''Der Niobidenmaler'', Leipzig 1935; the iconography of the reverse subject and its possible relation to a lost Early Classical wall-painting by [[Polygnotes]] was examined in {{cite journal |author=Erika Simon |year=1963 |title=Polygnotan Painting and the Niobid Painter |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=43–62 |jstor=502702}}</ref>

A lifesize group of marble Niobids, including one of Niobe sheltering one of her daughters, found in Rome in 1583 at the same time as the ''[[Wrestlers (sculpture)|Wrestlers]]'', were taken in 1775 to the [[Uffizi]] in [[Florence]] where, in a gallery devoted to them, they remain some of the most prominent surviving sculptures of [[Classical antiquity]] (''see below''). New instances come to light from time to time, like one headless statue found in early 2005 among the ruins of a villa in the [[Villa dei Quintili]] just outside [[Rome]].<ref>{{cite journal|title = A tragic figure emerges from the ruins of a Roman villa|author=Jarrett A. Lobell|journal=[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]]|volume=58|issue= 4|date=July–August 2005}}</ref>

In painting, Niobe was painted by post-Renaissance artists from varied traditions (''see below''). An early appearance, ''The Death of Niobe's Children'' by [[Abraham Bloemaert]], was painted in 1591 towards the start of the [[Dutch Golden Age]]. The English artist [[Richard Wilson (painter)|Richard Wilson]] gained great acclaim for his ''[[The Destruction of the Children of Niobe]]'', painted in 1760. Three notable works, all dating from the 1770s, ''Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children'' by [[Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier]], ''The Children of Niobe Killed by Apollo and Diana'' by [[Pierre-Charles Jombert]] and ''Diana and Apollo Piercing Niobe’s Children with their Arrows'' by [[Jacques-Louis David]] belong to the tradition of [[French Baroque and Classicism]].

''Niobe'' is an abstract painting by [[Károly Patkó]].<ref>A sketch is found [http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_159084/Karoly-Patko/Sketch-for-Niobe-1923 here].</ref>
 
In classical music, Italian composer Agostino Steffani (1654–1728) dedicated his opera "[[Niobe, regina di Tebe|Niobe, Queen of Saba]]" to her myth, and [[Giovanni Pacini]] too wrote an [[:it:Niobe_(Pacini)|opera]] on this myth. [[Benjamin Britten]] based one of his ''[[Six Metamorphoses after Ovid]]'' on Niobe.

In modern music, [[Caribou (musician)|Caribou]] called the last track on his 2007 album ''[[Andorra (album)|Andorra]]'' "Niobe".

In modern dance, [[José Limón]] named a section of his dance theatre work ''Dances for Isadora'' as "Niobe". The section is a solo for a woman mourning the loss of her children.

A marble statue of Niobe is a female lead character in a long-running 1892 farce [[Niobe (play)]] by [[Harry Paulton]]. In the play she is bought to life by a quaint electrical storm and brings the Edwardian values and relationships in the household to disarray. The season at the London [[Royal Strand Theatre]] enjoyed more than five hundred performances. The play is the subject of a musical dedication by [[Australians|Australian]] composer Thomas Henry Massey. The play was filmed in 1915.<ref>{{Citation
  | title=Niobe [music] : gavotte (All smiles) / composed by T. H. Massey
  | author1=Massey, T. H., 1870?–1946
  | publisher=Wm. Bruce & Co
  | language=zxx
}}</ref>
{{clear}}

===Examples in painting and sculpture===
<gallery widths=210 heights=200>
File:Sommer, Giorgio (1834-1914) - n. 2990 - Niobe madre - Firenze.jpg|Picture of the [[Uffizi]] sculpture representing Niobe photographed by [[Giorgio Sommer]]
File:Abraham Bloemaert - Apollo and Diana Punishing Niobe by Killing her Children - Google Art Project.jpg|1591 painting by [[Abraham Bloemaert]]
File:François Spierincx 002.jpg|1610 tapestry by [[François Spierincx]]
File:Destruction of Niobe's children.jpg|1760 painting by [[Richard Wilson (painter)|Richard Wilson]]
File:Niobe&Enfants 1770painting Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier.jpg|1770 painting by [[Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier]]
File:Pierre-Charles Jombert - Les enfants de Niobé tués par Apollon et Diane.JPG|1772 painting by [[Pierre-Charles Jombert]]
File:Niobe Statue Kvetna Gardens Kromeriz Czech Republic.jpg|Statue of Niobe in Květné Gardens, [[Kroměříž]], [[Czech Republic]]
File:Houdini Gravesite.jpg|Niobe statue at [[Harry Houdini]]'s Grave in New York City
File:Munich Niobid sarcophagus.jpg|Roman sarcophagus showing the massacre of Niobeʼs children. Ca 160 AD. [[Glyptothek]], Munich.
</gallery>

==Related terms==
The choice of "Niobe" simply as a name in works of art and literature is not uncommon either. Two minor characters of Greek mythology have the same name (''see [[Niobe (disambiguation)]]'') and the name occurs in several works of the 19th century. More recently, one of the characters in [[The Matrix (franchise)|''The Matrix'' film series]] is also named Niobe. A character named [[Niobe Vorena|Niobe]] also appeared in the ''[[Rome (TV series)|Rome]]'' TV series.

The element [[niobium]] was so named as an extension of the inspiration which had led earlier to the naming of the element [[tantalum]] by [[Anders Gustaf Ekeberg]]. On the basis of his argument according to which there were two different elements in the tantalite sample, [[Heinrich Rose]] named them after children of [[Tantalus]]—niobium and [[pelopium]]—although the argument was later contested as far as pelopium was concerned.

A mountain in [[British Columbia]], Canada is named Mount Niobe.

Four successive ships of the British [[Royal Navy]] were called ''[[HMS Niobe]]''.

== See also ==
{{portal|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome|Mythology}}

* [[Cassiopeia (disambiguation)]]
* [[Lycian peasants]]
* [[Myrrha|Smyrna]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{Commons category|Niobe}}
{{NIE Poster|year=1905|Niobe}}
{{EB1911 poster|Niobe}}

===Modern scholarship===
{{refbegin}}
* [[Robert Manuel Cook]], 1964. ''Niobe and Her children'' ([[Cambridge University Press]]). Summary of the most recent research on ancient Niobid representations, pp.&nbsp;6–30.
* Albin-Lesky, "Niobe" in ''[https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Paulys_Realencyclopädie_der_classischen_Altertumswissenschaft Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft]'' xxxiii (1936:644–73) for a full discussion of the complexities of Niobe's theme.
{{refend}}

===Classical authors===
{{refbegin}}
* Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Famous Women, pp.&nbsp;33–35; Harvard University Press 2001; {{ISBN|0-674-01130-9}}
* Ovid, ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' VI.145–310.
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' III.5.6.
{{refend}}

===General reading===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|title = Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey: From Prehistoric Times Until the End of the Roman Empire |isbn= 0-7103-0776-4|author=Ekrem Akurgal|author-link=Ekrem Akurgal|publisher=[[Kegan Paul]]|year= 2002}}
* {{cite book|title=Aegean Turkey: An archaeological guide|isbn=978-0-510-03200-5|author=George E. Bean|publisher=Ernest Benn, [[London]]|year=1967|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/aegeanturkey0000bean}}
* {{cite book|title = Ancient Smyrna: A History of the City from the Earliest Times to 324 A.D. |author=Cecil John Cadoux|publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]]|year=1938}}
* {{cite web|url = http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/505/niobe_rock_goddess.html |title = More on the 'weeping stone' simulacrum of Niobe in Turkey|author=Peter James|work=[[Fortean Times]]|date=January 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627211516/http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/505/niobe_rock_goddess.html|archive-date=2007-06-27}}
{{refend}}

{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Princesses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Queens in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into terrain in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological people from Anatolia]]
[[Category:Leto]]
[[Category:Deeds of Apollo]]
[[Category:Deeds of Artemis]]
[[Category:Deeds of Zeus]]
[[Category:Theban mythology]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses characters]]
[[Category:Atreidai]]

== References ==
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000135 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Niobe and the Niobids)]